Couple face gun charges in Portage incident

A Portage man and woman face felony gun charges after what police said was a family dispute over the weekend that reportedly included pointing and firing a loaded gun.

John Tustison, 26, of the 400 block of Bronze Avenue in the Oak Tree Village mobile home park, was charged with criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon and pointing a loaded firearm, and Sherry Tustison, 31, of the same address, was charged with pointing a loaded firearm.

Portage police were called to the Tustisons' neighborhood shortly after midnight Saturday because of a disturbance outside involving three people. The caller heard two gunshots during the dispute.

The victim, a relative of one of the Tustisons, told police he was with the couple and they were drinking when he got into an argument with Sherry Tustison and she told him to leave, a report said. He said the argument turned physical and he was pushed out of the mobile home and she chased him around the front yard with a stick, documents said.

The victim told police when he walked back toward the residence, Sherry Tustison came outside with a shotgun and pointed it at him, and then John Tustison took the shotgun from Sherry Tustison and pointed at him and fired, the report said.

The victim told police he got behind a vehicle in the driveway to avoid getting hit.

John Tustison told police the victim had been drinking and gotten into an argument with Sherry Tustison and refused to leave when asked to do so. John Tustison said he and Sherry Tustison practically pushed the victim out the back door but he wouldn't leave, the report said.

John Tustison told police that because the victim wouldn't leave and kept arguing, "he grabbed the shotgun and went to the back door… when (the victim) still wouldn't leave he pointed the shotgun up in the air and fired off one round," according to a police report.

When questioned by police, he said he didn't call 911 for assistance because his cellphone wasn't working.

Sherry Tustison admitted to police she pointed the shotgun at the victim but she never fired it, and that John Tustison took it from her and only fired it in the air, the report said.

Police recovered the shotgun and a spent shell casing at the scene.

Police contacted Child Protective Services to place the six children who were present at the time of the incident with family members, and animal control officers removed a dog.

A version of this article appeared in print on December 29, 2015, in the News section of the Chicago Tribune with the headline "Couple face gun charges in Portage" —
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